Christmas time

Here is our Cohen bug with Daddy and cousin Adella who kept trying to hug him but was just putting him in a choke hold :)

Auntie Hannah and Uncle Jayton

Here we are by Mom's tree, the background is beautiful...me not so much. Not exactly bringing my "A" game

Michelle and Grace...you'll enjoy this

I'll post Christmas related things when we get back home but I had to put this picture up, its just too funny.
My niece Lauren was enjoying some Ritz cheese sandwiches, just pulling them apart, eating the cheese and then throwing the crackers on the floor and Cohen thought those looked like a good treat and was sitting beneath her chair eating her discarded, licked, cheese-less crackers!
Its a little blurry but still dang funny

For your viewing pleasure

I thought  I'd do a little update on our life for the last few weeks. Cohen and I have just been doing a lot of hanging around the house and park playing him learning to crawl, stand, and not eat grass! :) He is absolutely ALL over the place these days and getting into anything that he can reach, which is alot considering how tall he already is. He's 31" and weighs in at an arm breaking 24.5 lbs at only 10 months. That puts him over the 95% for height and about 80th% for weight.  We're still in love with him as ever but he's hearing just as many "No's" as "I love you's"

I only have these two pictures to show for Thanksgiving because Paul was 1 day post surgery and I had my hands full with the little dude. So the nap pic was a relief :)

Trick-or-Treat, cousins and the park

Here are the obligatory Halloween pictures. Yeah, I'm a boring mom and went as "mom".  I was able to be in Mesa with my whole family at the ward Trunk or Treat. So fun to have Cohen around his cousins...even if he doesn't really know whats going on half the time yet! He's still entertained :) Sorry about the picture quality. This is what happens when you forget your camera and have to rely on your iPhone for documentation of your son's childhood!

Liza and Justin were Octo-Mom and Dad. It was pretty dang funny, Liza had 8 dolls strapped to her and a nasty black wig

Here's Cohen with his cousin Adella. They were entertaining themselves with measuring spoons and pans at Great Grandma Bear's house

 

 

I took Cohen to the park right by our house the other day and let him play in the sand for the first time. I was having a small panic attack about him playing in sand but all turned out well :) He didnt try to eat it, he was just wearing alot of it when we left!

Time for a new post

Not much has been going on here, just the usual sitting around the house car-less and being grateful the weather is getting cooler so we can venture outside. I will however get to be in Mesa starting tomorrow for Halloween festivities and some dental work...hey it cant all be costumes and candy, right? For now enjoy documentation of our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We were watching my nephews for the weekend...in case you were wondering who the random extra children were.

DEAR FRIENDS....

PLEASE MOVE BY ME,  I MISS YOU...

Cant get enough of this

Look closely and you can see his little toofers

Cohen these days

So Cohen is 7 months now and is learning, moving and "talking" like crazy! His stats go like so...
Length = between percentile 50 and 75
Weight = between percentile 75 and 90
Head Circumference = between percentile 25 and 50

We call him our Monster Man because he's always grunting and roaring. He can put down A LOT of food and Paul suggested last night that Cohen go on a diet, haha. He's still learning to crawl and is just dragging himself across the room... if there's something he wants! :) Which lately has been all electrical cords he can find. There have been no electrocutions so far but its not for lack of trying! He has been smiling and laughing a lot more as he gets older and it is so fun to play with him and get that cute "one tooth" smile out of him. I have yet to get photographic documentation of said single tooth but its pretty dang cute! He LOVES being outside and taking doggies for walks. He thinks dogs on a leach are really funny for some reason.

Other than that we're all just hanging out waiting for the deathly hot summer to end so we can go outside and play again.

MAN OH MAN!!! HAVE YOU SEEN IT??

CALLING ALL MOTHERS!

Hello ladies, I need your advice on a mommy matter.
I've been looking for a lightweight stroller that Cohen can transition into from his car seat stroller. Somewhat umbrella-esque but still has good features: lightweight, easy to maneuver, must recline, sun shade and is $150 or less. ANY SUGGESTIONS? What have you used that you love? Have any of you bought a cheaper stroller then wished you had a double or "toddler jump on/double" stroller after you had your second? I need your expertise please!

The new do..

Thoughts?? Be honest now, I can take it

Oh Chelsea Lately, how you make me laugh

I hate diets that say you can have 9 almonds for a snack
Almonds taste like crap!
If I'm going to have 9 almonds for a snack its going to be inside an M & M!

Tweet tweet

This is my current project...you have to hand sew these little suckers so needless to say its taking a bit of time. Cohen better appreciate the visual eye candy above his crib :)

BFF's, Sisterhood, Soulmates

You always hear how having good friends is one of the most important things in life. Well I feel as though I've been blessed with the best girls I could hope to have as friends. Some of you may not have liked high school but I feel like it was some of the funnest years and its because of these girls.
This last weekend I went down to Mission Beach for a little getaway and was having deja vu the entire time! I had only been there once before and never since so I was having flash backs of my senior trip. The girls and I rented a beach house and spent the week just hanging out and having the time of our lives. There I was squealing in the car and taking pictures left and right of random shops and restaurants that meant so much to me because of the time I spent there with my best friends that summer. At this point Paul and his sisters are thinking "what the heck is wrong with you?" But I couldn't help it, it felt like yesterday that I was there.

So here's to you my lovely ladies...12 kids, 10 husbands and 7 years later!! I love you all!

Luigi's circa 2002

Now (2009)

Our Beach house

"Get it On" Surf Shop, then and now
Very mature, I know

Sunburnt much? Even though half of us are totally whities we of course did not wear a lick of sunscreen and were all pretty burned after the first few days.

Random guy who Jill talked into teaching her how to surf

Our last day in the house. Yeah, our front yard WAS the beach. Not too shabby!!

Jillian Jillian Jillian

I AM SOOOO DISAPPOINTED IN YOU. REALLY?!? ED?
You had Kiptyn and Reid and you choose hairy, drunk, gay shorts ED?! Wow...is all I have to say.

BELLY LAUGHS

This video is a little long but the best parts start at around 30 seconds. This is guaranteed to make you smile!!

Yum Yum

mmmmm mmmmm good! rice cereal

VA, DC and the 4th

Paul and I were able to take a week to go to the east coast with his whole family and visit his brother Chip in Virginia and took a little jaunt up to DC to see the sites as well. It was so much fun and we were able to watch fireworks from the National Mall sitting right underneath the Washington Monument. I have a bazillion pictures so here are some of them in order of days.

1st Day
We stayed the night with Chip and Stephanie in Charlottesville, VA and then visited Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, the next day

Meeting cousin Cash for the first time

Monticello, TJ's home :)

2nd Day
We went to Colonial Williamsburg, which basically is a whole town that has been preserved and still looks like it did back in the 16-1700's. Kinda cool, a little boring, but I guess we needed to check it out.

The girls taking a little rest from all our walking around

Watching a battle recreation between patriots and red coats

On the 4th we scouted out a seat under the Washington Monument on the Mall to watch the fireworks. We were there for about 5 hours waiting for the show to start so we got a little tired :)

4th Day
We went out to Mt Vernon to see George Washington's digs along the Potomac. I could not believe how green and beautiful the east coast was. All the freeways are like tunnels between 30 ft trees. Being from Mesa and living in Palm Desert I have a lack of vegetation and couldnt get over the fact that there are some places in the world where green stuff actually grows! After Mt Vernon we visited the DC temple and went to dinner with the fam.

Mt Vernon. This is Wahington's back porch overlooking the Potomac. SO beautiful!

Washington's grave. He's buried on site at his plantation next to Martha.

5th Day
6 Flags, and this was the only picture that we took that day, haha. Nap much Anne? I love that even though he is 5 1/2 mo old he will still cuddle and take naps with me.

6th Day
Our whole time in DC we kept seeing these double-decker site seeing buses so we decided to take one of those around to see all the sites in one day. We hit the Museum of Natural History, Lincoln Memorial, White House, Korean War memorial, Union Station, National Cathedral (Paul's fav), and tons more of which I did not take pictures.

Paul's 11 year old brother kept asking if we were going to see Obama when we were visiting the white house and we were just laughing at him and saying of course not, but on the 4th when he and Chip were walking by he actually came out on his porch and waved at the crowd outside.

The National Cathedral was ridiculously large. Play wheres Waldo with Paul here and you'll get an idea of the scale. You can lay down the 555 ft Washington Monument inside the nave of the cathedral.
That morning I was watching the news and saw that a famous restaurant was celebrating its 75th anniversary so they were going back to 1934 prices. Come to find out this place was where JFK proposed to Jackie O, and where other presidents would go for brunch and dinner. It was absolutley AAAAmazing. We all got filet mignon for $1.75, crabcakes for .75, chicken a la king, calamari and all sorts of goodies. We were feeding 9 people...so the check comes and we got $344 worth of food for $18!! I'd say Charlie was loving me because he had been picking up the check for most of his kids everywhere else.

JFK and Jackie O's booth at Martin's Tavern

After our trip I went and got a massage to get out all my knots from carrying around chunky monkey Cohen in my kangaroo pouch all week. He is getting so big and did superb on the trip. We have one chill baby my friends. He just goes with the flow, falls asleep anywhere and is pleasant 99% of the time. The other 1% of the time he decided to scream for and hour on the plane heading back to LAX. The only time he would stop was when he was flirting and giggling with the stewardess' in the back. All in all it was such a fun trip and great to spend time wiht Paul's family. We saw a TON of cool stuff, got more than enough exercise and enjoyed beautiful weather the entire time.